The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 eBook

of this great calamity fraught with dreadful danger,
I solicit your wealth for devising the means of your
protection. When the danger passes away, I will
give you what I now take. Our foes, however,
will not give back what they (if unopposed) will take
from you by force. On the other hand (if unopposed),
they will even slay all your relatives beginning with
your very spouses. You certainly desire wealth
for the sake of your children and wives. I am
glad at your prosperity, and I beseech you as I would
my own children. I shall take from you what it
may be within your power to give me. I do not
wish to give pain to any one. In seasons of calamity,
you should, like strong bulls, bear such burthens.
In seasons of distress, wealth should not be so dear
to you. A king conversant with the considerations
relating to Time should, with such agreeable, sweet,
and complimentary words, send his agents and collect
imposts from his people. Pointing out to them
the necessity of repairing his fortifications and
of defraying the expenses of his establishment and
other heads, inspiring them with the fear of foreign
invasion, and impressing them with the necessity that
exists for protecting them and enabling them to ensure
the means of living in peace, the king should levy
imposts upon the Vaisyas of his realm. If the
king disregards the Vaisyas, they become lost to him,
and abandoning his dominions remove themselves to
the woods. The king should, therefore, behave
with leniency towards them. The king, O son of
Pritha, should always conciliate and protect the Vaisyas,
adopt measures for inspiring them with a sense of
security and for ensuring them in the enjoyment of
what they possess, and always do what is agreeable
to them. The king, O Bharata, should always act
in such a way towards the Vaisyas that their productive
powers may be enhanced. The Vaisyas increase the
strength of a kingdom, improve its agriculture, and
develop its trade. A wise king, therefore, should
always gratify them. Acting with heedfulness and
leniency, he should levy mild imposts upon them.
It is always easy to behave with goodness towards
the Vaisyas. There is nothing productive of greater
good to a kingdom, O Yudhishthira, then the adoption
of such behaviour towards the Vaisyas of the realm.’”

SECTION LXXXVIII

“Yudhishthira said: ’Tell me, O grandsire,
how should the king should behave if, notwithstanding
his great wealth, he desires for more.’

“Bhishma said, ’A king, desirous of earning
religious merit, should devote himself to the good
of his subjects and protect them according to considerations
of place and time and to the best of his intelligence
and power. He should, in his dominions, adopt
all such measures as would in his estimation secure
their good as also his own. A king should milk
his kingdom like a bee gathering honey from plants.[253]
He should act like the keeper of a cow who draws milk